Multimedia drives mobile broadband
Multimedia or music players, cameras, mobile handsets and embedded software in cars are some of the drivers that increase the demand for broadband mobile access, said Kalle Snellman, CEO of Prisma Research at Helsinki MobileMonday on January 8.
Other drivers are services that require broadband mobile access (remote access to email and other business apps, VoIP, music, video, TV, radio, browsing), the increasing importance of online services in daily life (e.g. telecommuting), and the growing awareness of mobile broadband’s possibilities among consumers.
However, it will not be fast and smooth sailing for mobile broadband. The egg-and-chicken phenomenon exists here too. The market challenges include a slowly renewing device base, spotty network coverage, usability issues (e.g. immature standards and technologies), network quality issues (e.g. VoIP over WLAN), lack of cooperation tradition between operators, and rare technologies (especially Flash-OFDM).
Prisma Research sees that broadband Internet access has stagnated in Finland and remains at its 2006 level. The only growth will come from mobile broadband.
Snellman believes that GSM-3G-based networks will play the major role. He expects WLAN access to wither away since nobody has been able to develop lasting earning models on this technology. He also believes that the wireless LANs that use the licence free 2,4 GHz bandwidth will multiply so that they will choke each other off.
"802.11 WLAN technology was never intended to be used outdoors," Snellman points out.
Overview of the mobile broadband market